Residents of Arthur Street and other Guelphites fond of an old silver maple tree in Joseph Wolfond Park have submitted a petition to the City of Guelph asking that the tree be allowed to stay standing.

Arthur Street resident Sue Smith said in an e-mail to the Trib that the petition asks the city “to cease plans to permanently remove the old silver maple from Wolfond Park East” and is signed by 49 people.

Residents had gained a reprieve for the tree earlier this year, which the city had planned to cut down, in order to harvest seeds this spring for propagation. Unfortunately, wrote Smith in a letter accompanying the petition, the tree didn’t produce any seeds this year.

The tree was hit by lightening sometime in the 1990s. It has a hollow trunk but new branches still sprout from its top.

The maple is a “neighbourhood heirloom”, Smith said in her letter, and often people come to the park specifically to see the tree.